Thursday, February 23, 2012

Two dozen North Korean refugees in China are in a terrifying limbo, as the Chinese government plans to deport them back to North Korea, where the new "Supreme Leader" Kim Jong-Un is cracking down by shooting defectors on sight and vowing to kill "three generations" of their families.

In December, Kim Jong-Un ordered border guards to shoot defectors on sight rather than sending them to reeducation camps and decreed defectors' families would also be killed.

Moses (a pseudonym to protect the petition creator’s identity and safety) escaped the nightmare of surveillance, intimidation, human rights abuses and famine in North Korea -- he's a refugee now living in Seoul, South Korea. But a young woman he’s known since they were kids in North Korea is in the group currently being detained in China.

"We have cried our eyes out," Moses and his friends say, certain the young woman will be executed if she's returned to North Korea. Moses's only hope is that international pressure can save her -- he started a petition on Change.org calling on world leaders including U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the EU's Catherine Ashton to do everything they can to stop China from deporting his friend and others back to North Korea.

Already, more than 30,000 people have signed Moses's petition.

One deadline for the deportation of these refugees has already passed, signaling that China knows it will have blood on its hands if it follows through. China may be bending to international pressure, but needs to hear more from other global leaders to release the refugees to South Korea.